Well, Bambi’s Cousins Are All Here. What Now? – New York Times Annotated

© C.M. Glover

Some places in the state have 60 deer per square mile.

By WOODY HOCHSWENDER

Published: March 23, 2008

SHARON

Lyme disease, more than 29,000 reported cases in the state since 1996; second, deer-vehicle collisions, an average of 49 deer killed a day on the state’s roadways (18,000 annually), according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Finally, there is deforestation resulting from deer overbrowsing and the consequent loss of native songbirds and wildflowers.

Connecticut lawmakers are considering legislation — House Bill 5852: An Act Concerning the Control of Lyme Disease — to provide the state with a comprehensive deer management plan.

There are now more than 60 deer per square mile in some parts of Connecticut, six times the ecologically sustainable number of 10 per square mile, according to Howard Kilpatrick, the wildlife biologist in charge of deer management at the D.E.P.

Relying on D.E.P. data, a citizens’ group, the Connecticut Coalition to Eradicate Lyme Disease, has been going to town meetings and to the Legislature to garner support for reducing the deer population through town-managed hunts.

Those who think large herds of wild deer are the norm in Connecticut may want to think again. At the turn of the last century, the D.E.P. estimates, there were 12 white-tailed deer in the entire state.